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Announcement: When to preorder your Oculus Rift bundles

Oculus VR has just announced the date everyone's been waiting for - don't miss your chance to preorder an Oculus-ready PC bundle.

If you’ve been eyeing the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, now may be the time to act. According to a report from PC Magazine, however, you may not only be on the hook for the headset – because the virtual reality set requires some pretty hefty computing power, the company has just announced that it will make Rift PC bundles available for preorder on February 16.

The bundles will be available starting at 11AM EST from Best Buy, Amazon, and the Microsoft store. They will retail for $1,499, and include an Oculus rift headset, sensor, remote, Xbox One controller, two games (EVE: Valkyrie Founder’s pack and Lucky’s Tale,) and an “Oculus-certified PC” produced by Asus, Alienware, or Dell.

Oculus outlined the various PC’s that will come with the Rift headset, vetting their performance with Rift hardware and guaranteeing an “incredible Rift experience.”

Preorders will begin shipping in limited quantities beginning this April. For people who have already preordered the Rift headset but are worried about their computer’s compatibility, Oculus is offering a discount on approved and endorsed PC’s in certain countries and regions. If you have a pending preorder and want to update it to receive the whole bundle, you will be able to do so starting on February 16.

According to a statement from the company, “To get the full Rift experience, you’ll need a PC that meets or exceeds our recommended system specifications.” Oculus has made a compatibility tool available that lets users check the specs on their current PC to make sure it can handle the Rift headset. The tool is available for download on Oculus’ website, and automatically assesses your computer’s compatibility.

The virtual reality headset itself will cost $599, and the additional $900 for an Oculus-ready PC represents a solid discount on a number of computers. While the PC bundle isn’t for everybody, it could allow people who would have otherwise forgone the Rift headset a chance to experience the latest in virtual reality.

A blog post from Oculus VR describing the details of the PC bundle preorder offer can be found here.